Posts tagged: credit_habits

Will Your Credit Score Improve if You’re an Authorized User On a Credit Card Account?

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Maybe your credit score is kind of lacking a high number, and you wish to do something about it. In fact, you want to know everything you could possibly do to help it get back into the high range as soon as possible. But how do you do that?

One way you could help improve your credit score is by signing as an authorized user on a credit card along with someone else. Though the good credit they currently have will not reflect yours, the fact that they will keep paying their bills on time will reflect on your score and make it improve. That is, only if you do not use that credit card account unwisely yourself.

If you were to sign with someone on a credit card, it is important that both of you agree to have good credit behavior. If you sign on with someone who is great with credit cards and has an awesome score, their good habits will reflect back onto your credit score simply because you share the same account. But if you use that credit card in a bad way, it will not only make your credit score even worse, but it will decrease theirs as well.

Being an authorized user allows you to gain a better credit score, but when it all comes down to it, you are not responsible for the debt. So, really, if you messed the credit card account up for the person you are signed up with, it is their responsibility, not necessarily yours, to pay the debt. Still, no intelligent credit card holder with a good credit score would allow someone who would inevitably ruin their credit and drag them into debt to be an authorized user of their credit card account, so you have to be trustworthy and try to break your bad credit habits.

You will not want to stay on these accounts any longer than you have to, especially if you are applying for a home loan. Though it improves your score, it can decrease your chances of getting approved for a home loan. So when you are signed on as an authorized user of someone else’s account, stay on only as long as it takes to improve your score enough to be on your own again.

One bad thing about being an authorized user on someone else’s account is that you put yourself at risk of being joined with someone who may not have the greatest credit history either, and who may not use the credit wisely. This will end up costing you even more of your credit score and leave you in a worse predicament than you were in to begin with. This is all usually determined by your judgement of the person who you are planning to share the account with, so you must be careful of who you associate your credit score with.